Gloopee Makes a Splash!
Hi Everyone
Happy New Year. It's 11pm on (what day is it???) Tuesday and this is the first moment I've had to get to the computer in 48 hours. I had an incredible new year's eve, the culmination of which was my daughter making her way into the world at 12:12am on the 1st of January - the second baby born this year in N.S.W! There were lots of fireworks for her. The local newspaper came and interviewed us today for a front page story, so our baby is already making headlines which is a bit scary. During the birth, Sarah was an absolute wonder - strong, resilient, determined - and at the end, exhausted. Our (as yet unnamed - we're still working on that) daughter seems to possess the same qualities. She's a girl who knows what she wants and when she wants it, and is not afraid to tell us! Usually that means a feed - like her dad, without food she's a bit grumpy.
She's absolutely gorgeous (of course, not biased at all) and strong as an ox. She weighed in at 3.9kg and was 52cm long at birth. I was in the pool with Sa when she gave birth and when the baby was pulled up out of the water, she didn't scream, just sat there turning her eyes this way and that, checking out this whole new existence that suddenly (well, not so suddenly) opened to her. The midwives left at 3:00am, I phoned the parents and then the three of us - this new family - snuggled up in our own bed in our own home together for a well-earned sleep.
It's a wondrous period of learning for us both and being someone who usually takes a long time to get to sleep, I've discovered that I can now fall asleep virtually the moment I lay down and sleep solidly for an hour. Sarah is kept very busy feeding this little girl who seems to want to eat more often than I do, which is saying a lot.
I feel very humbled by the whole birth experience and the beginnings of parenting, and very lucky to be a father.
Kind regards
Gary
You better get some sleep while you can!
Has to be number one on the list of "statin' the bleedin' obvious". Does that include a last dirty weekend together alone? We figured there must be something to this wisdom and booked into the Harbourview Hotel in North Sydney (pictured in all its glory) for two nights (we didn't want to venture too far away). We tried to catch up on as much sleep as possible, and we did, although I had to finish my Christmas shopping on Saturday, which took hours. Never mind. We managed to slip in a foot massage, stop for coffee and ice cream at Passionflower (anti-endorsement: DON'T go to "Passionflower", you'll only get ripped off, and the ice cream isn't particularly good), and toast at David Jones.
We really did have harbour views from our room, and even saw some fireworks on Saturday night. We had some great meals - Green Gourmet feast on Friday night at St Leonards and Malabar Indian at "Crowie" on Saturday night with far too big dosas. Never mind. 'Tis the season to be over-indulgent. I even had time to lie in bed and read a newspaper! Now we're back at home, the rain is pouring down, I'm heading off for an afternoon nap (joining Sa who is already napping), life is great.
To Everything, Turn, Turn, Turn...
Gloopee was in a posterior position. This is bad as it can cause a lot of back pain during delivery. Sa went to an acupuncturist who punctured her and did moxibustion on her little toe (pictured on our deck). We continued the moxibustion for a few days at home. And Gloopee turned! We've been busily preparing the house for the birth - clearing spaces getting blinds ready, selling furniture, moving pianos (thanks Nik, Dave and Ah Lek!), renovating bathrooms, shopping, shopping, shopping, pumping, pumping, pumping...
I think we're getting organised now. Still haven't done a practice run filling the pool though - me, I'll just be happy to see the other side of this stolen pagan festival known as Christmas, so I can focus on one of the most significant events in my life. To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven, a time to be born, and a time to die (RIP Aunty Es xxx).
Mid-morning with the mid-wives.
Angela and Lisa came over on Monday morning, Nina was here too. They brought and left with us an oxygen tank and various other supplies for the big event. Angela was really fantastic and Lisa is great too. Angela really made me feel confident, excited and ready for the whole thing, and Sa is reaching the point where I think she'd like it to happen sooner rather than later too. I keep walking into the room, glancing at Gloopee and exclaiming "Geeeez!" or "Bloody hell!". Especially when Sa has no clothes on, it's amazing how far out her tummy protrudes. The midwives went through a checklist of questions and informed us of what situations could arise that would mean a transfer to hospital was necessary - the most likely being the old "failure to progress", though being midwives and not know-it-all (even though they don't) doctors, they didn't quite put it in those words. They also seem to be a little more relaxed about what constitutes a labour which is "running overtime". They checked our bath and the house and were happy with it and amenable to any suggestions we made. It's only three weeks until the Christmas break now, and that could very likely be the start of a three month break from (paid) work for me - I can't wait to have a break from work and I'm very excited about meeting Gloopee. Sarah asked her Dad to ask for a Chinese name for the baby - we had a quick response from the family (from Pui Yan, not sure who actually gave the names). The names are Seen Loong for a boy (kind dragon) and Pui Fun for a girl (apt/suitable original/pure).
Blood, snakes, sex, panic
Had the strangest day on Saturday. Just about to go through our 10 Years at Dickson St yoga demo practice and I ran into Sa at the loo looking strange. I said "Are you okay?" She said "No. Just had some bleeding...". Naturally, being the man of superior self control that I am, I shit myself. My mind was immediately thrust back to the miscarriage and I just thought "No! Not now! Not at this stage of the pregnancy! Not on this day!" Merelyn looked at it for us and was reassuring. We ran through the practice though Sa didn't do actively, then we rushed home and rang the midwife. Sa explained to her what had happened and the first thing she said was "Did you have sex last night?" "Errr...yes..." Right. That settles that. When news got out to the yoga teachers it was "So it was YOUR fault!" and "No more sex for you then!". Ha ha. The rest of the day was madly rushing about preparing for the evening's celebrations - picked up the car, picked up Nina's dance floor, delivered it, picked up some venomous snakes, delivered them with handler to Beverly Hills at Michael's group home. I arrived and Prince's "Kiss" was blasting on the CD player with one woman running around waving her arms to the music shouting "Sex! Sex! Sex!". "No, I'm not allowed sorry."
Home Birth??!!! What are yers?? Hippies or sumfin??
Maybe we are. Call us what you want. I don't care. If that makes you feel less threatened by people who are different. I honestly wish I didn't have to feel different, but I do. What a shame. In the Netherlands, about a third of births happen at home. "But is it safe??" Read the research before making assumptions about our informed choices. Yes, for low-risk women (and some reports even suggest for ALL women), outcomes for home births are similar or better than that for hospital births. Is it safe to stick a huge needle into your back or to dose the mother and baby (yes, drugs cross the placenta) with hard narcotics such as pethidine, then probably have to slice open mum's abdomen? "But what's wrong with hospital??" Nothing, if you are in a life-threatening situation and require surgery. That doesn't sound like a normal birth to me. In fact, the wonderful midwives at St George Hospital are incredibly supportive and will transfer us to hospital should we need to do that. We will cope with whatever happens, but to us, nothing could be better than bringing our child into the world in the safety and security of its own home. "But what about the pain??" Women have been strong enough for eons to bear the pain with support from friends and family. "What would you know, you're a man?!" I speak on behalf of my partner and I believe in her fully, in HER choice (though I strongly agree) to have as little intervention as possible (including drugs) and I have faith that she is strong enough and aware enough of her body to get through without them. The pain of childbirth is not life-threatening - an obstetrician missing his next round of golf is life-threatening. Call me cynical. "CYNICAL!!!" It saddens me that people willingly go through one of the most significant moments of their life in a sterile, daunting, impersonal and infectious environment like a hospital but more so that you're a freakazoid hippie motherf#!@er if you don't.
Gloopee spins me right round like a record baby
Definitely a girl. Did some dowsing on Sa's tummy a la Esther Dean (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Dean) - always round and round, no swinging or neutrality there. I'm madly trying to get the bathroom finished before Gloops does the ultimate gloop - from the womb. Mind you, last night, she was glooping more than ever, it was a real gloopee bash in Sa's guts. Been busy also organising performances for the NYR 10 years at Dickson St partay (along with sorting and practising out my own). Sa and I are trying to go to quite a few restaurants in the next few weeks as people tell me I'll never be able to do that again yadda yadda yadda, make sure you get lots of sleep now blah blah blah. Ha ha ha. Well, I don't sleep much now anyway, so who cares! We had cards of different birth stages at prenatal class on Tuesday - I got "waters break with a gush". We had to line up in order of what stage of labour (or prelabour) we thought we were in. That was great, I've got a much better idea of the whole process now, at least the chronology of it. I ate some meat last night, just a few mouthfulls, first time in 8 years. It was boring and maybe I'll try it again in 8 years' time. Maybe not. Pictured is me at 28 weeks.
Ante-natal classes - how to run a birth protest meeting...
Just kidding. Attended our first class on Tuesday night. Run by Jo Perks, a perky midwife. We walked in 15 minutes late as we just had to have dessert at Iku on the way and then I left Sa in charge of directions..."are you sure this is the right street??".
Everyone looked a bit tense and then we went through the "tell us your hopes and fears" guff. I was the first male to speak. I voiced my main concerns about complications and not having the natural birth that we want to have. Jo was good and I felt reassured after speaking with her about it. When it came to the other blokes' turns, they sat there with arms crossed "Ah...yeah...what everyone else has said basically". One of them is a paramedic, a huge gentle guy. Spoke to another woman who discovered her partner was pregnant on the day they bought a house in Leichhardt - quite a big day! I'm glad I went, we got to watch another birth video. Pain seemed to be the biggest issue for most couples (actually, all of them except for us). Sa is (at least now) very accepting of that aspect of the birth, chanting her anicca mantra "impermanence...impermanence..".
